Smolker Bartlett Client Awarded Over $15 Million Plus Attorneys Fees

Following a jury verdict that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) took property of a Smolker Bartlett client without just compensation, the Circuit Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit entered a judgment against FDEP for over $15 Million. Recently, the Court also awarded the firm’s client a multi-million doller attorney’s fees and costs award. It explained that “[prosecution of this case involved dealing with very novel difficult legal and factual issues,” and that “[w]ithout the level of skill employed by these lawyers, it is very doubtful that the result obtained on behalf of the Plaintiff would have occurred.” order here.

As previously reported, FDEP was required to compensate the Firm's client for the “serious economic harm” that it suffered because of this an taking without compensation. The Court had found an as-applied regulatory taking under Article X, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution. In the case, the Firm’s client invested in oceanfront property in order to construct seventeen townhomes. The client was denied a Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) permit when FDEP changed its permitting policies mid-stream. The Court found that FDEP was legally authorized to refuse to issue a CCCL permit and to change its related regulatory policies. However, FDEP’s policy change interfered with the property owner’s “distinct and reasonable expectation in the development, use and sale at a profit” of the property, which “caused [the property owner] to lost its distinct investment-backed expectations” in the property.